Nick Gordon's Former Lawyer Speaks Out on Bobbi Kristina Ruling

Nick Gordon's Former Lawyer Speaks Out on Bobbi Kristina Ruling

A judge ruled him civilly responsible for the music scion's death.

Published September 19th

Nick Gordon was declared civilly liable for his girlfriend Bobbi Kristina Brown's death by a Fulton County judge last week, but that doesn't mean he's guilty — at least, according to his former attorney.

Randy Kessler, who previously represented Gordon, explained to People that the judgment came down against his former client simply because he failed to show up in court (twice) for the hearing. In other words, Bobbi Kristina's conservator, Bedelia Hargrove, who filed the suit on behalf of the family, only won the judgment by default.

"As I understand it — and I am not representing [Gordon] — he did not have a lawyer for this civil case and because he failed to respond or to appear, the court simply granted Plaintiff's requests to assess liability," Kessler explained.

"To me, that does not establish that he did anything wrong," Kessler continued. "It is not a decision on the merits."

The judgment doesn't affect the ongoing criminal investigation into the late music scion's death, in which Gordon is the only person of interest. "This won't change anything in the criminal case," a source in the Fulton County's district attorney's office says. "Generally speaking, it tends to the other way around: a criminal conviction is used in a civil case. Obviously, if he had taken the stand in a civil case, we could have used what he said. But that's not what happened here. The case is still ongoing, but there are no new updates at this time."

While Bobbi Kristina's family expressed their satisfaction at last week's judgment against Gordon, it sounds like they're a long way from closure more than a year after her death.